Resources of ornamental fishes

Abstract

Among the fishes of Lakshadweep islands,
those of ornamental value (aquarium fishes) are
very abundant: of the 601 species of marine
fishes belonging to 126 families reported from
these Islands (Jones and Kumaran, 1980), at
least 300 species belonging to over 40 families
are ornamental fishes. In addition to the taxonomic
account of fishes of Lakshadweep islands
by Jones and Kumaran (1980), information on
ornamental fishes of these islands is restricted
to the works of Pillai er a/. (1983), Madan
Mohan efa/ (1986). and Kumaran and Gopakumar
(1986). There is, however, no information
on the relative abundance or areas of
abundance of different species of ornamental
fishes from different islands. There is considerable
demand for live ornamental fishes in
several countries (Tomey 1985, 1986) and the
present export market price of each fish,
depending on the species, ranges from Rs. 16.10
to Rs. 272.25 with an average of Rs. 90.60 in
Netherlands and from Rs. 4.96 to Rs. 148 with
an average of Rs. 34.85 in South East Asian
Countries. In West Germany, each specimen of
some of the species of ornamental fishes from
India can fetch from Rs. 99 to Rs. 810 (Anon
1986). In view of the demand for the ornamental
fishes and the possible earning of foreign
exchange through export of live ornamental
fishes and also in view of the lack of adequate
information on distribution and abundance of
different species in different islands, a survey
was conducted during January-March 1987
and the results with reference to ornamental
fishes are presented here.